London-based Orbital Sound has combined forces with the National Theatre department to stage the first of an annual advanced training programme for students wishing to pursue a career in sound.

With audio technology becoming increasingly sophisticated, both organisations are concerned that there is a skills shortfall and that young people entering the industry have little experience of the latest equipment.

Initiated jointly by Orbital's Simon Whitehorn and the NT's Rob Barnard, the co-produced course was held at the Naitonal Theatre and at Orbital's central London facility last month. The creative and conceptual workshops were staged at the National, while in-depth technical sessions were held at Orbital's headquarters.

The course was designed for final year stage management and technical theatre students. Nine candidates were nominated by London drama schools to participate in ten carefully structured classes which were co-hosted by Orbital and the National's staff members.

Barnard, head of sound at the National, commented: "Having worked with Orbital and Simon Whitehorn for many years, we felt that by combining our resources and expertise we were ideally positioned to offer an intensive training course for students interested in pursuing a career in theatre sound. Both myself and Simon graduated from drama school and feel that such training is ideal when working with sound in theatre. Our aim is to help provide those more advanced skills, as a top-up to the good basic training given by drama schools."

The four-day programme, which was offered at no expense to students or drama schools, covered a wide range of subjects. A particular emphasis was production engineering skills, specialist programming using Akai samplers and Pro Tools editing and the programming of automated mixing consoles.

In addition, many other global subjects were covered including basic acoustic and sound reinforcement for musicals. John Taylor, from leading equipment manufacturer d&b audiotechnik, was invited to lead several work groups and commented: "I felt that the response we got was very positive and I am sure, from the contributions we received, that everyone benefited from the session. I would applaud Orbital and the National Theatre's initiative in providing this kind of advanced training for theatre students. d&b was pleased to contribute to what we hope will be the first of many such forums."

Following its success both Orbital and the National are looking forward to further expanding their course next year, making it available through drama schools nationwide.